


mellifluous

by fiveyaaas



Series: when autumn comes [20]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Complicated Relationships, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Established Relationship, F/M, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Marking, Murder, Mutual Pining, Oral Sex, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Scratching, Suicide Attempt, Tragically Pining Idiots, Unsafe Sex, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, in that..... they are married 😔, truly a case of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:08:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27115888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveyaaas/pseuds/fiveyaaas
Summary: Vanya settled against his desk, crossing her legs as she handed him a cup of coffee and sipped her own. Her wedding ring was visible as it held the mug, and he wanted more than anything to take her to the small home they stayed in when he could delegate his work off to someone else. He reached over to touch her, but she flinched away.His stomach churned, but he didn’t try to argue with her.She was still… adjusting, to their arrangement.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves
Series: when autumn comes [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1941919
Comments: 10
Kudos: 100
Collections: Harcest Fall Festival: Fiveya Kinktober 2020





	mellifluous

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Savage_Architect](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Savage_Architect/gifts).



> This is for Savage_Architect, who is always ready to offer sweet words about everybody’s fics. I’m really thankful that she joined the discord and am grateful to be friends wIth someone so kind!!!

Five wasn’t entirely certain why the Commission had hired the shrimpy moron in front of him to be an assassin, and he was just about to scare him away when Vanya ambled into his office, carrying a cup of coffee in either hand. He sighed loudly, glaring at the assassin who was already crying. 

“Five,” Vanya commented. “Be nice.”

He deflated, telling the employee to leave, which he did, running off fast enough for Five to decide that he was not completely useless if he was that quick on assignments.

Vanya settled against his desk, crossing her legs as she handed him a cup of coffee and sipped her own. Her wedding ring was visible as it held the mug, and he wanted more than anything to take her to the small home they stayed in when he could delegate his work off to someone else. He reached over to touch her, but she flinched away. 

His stomach churned, but he didn’t try to argue with her. 

She was still… adjusting, to their arrangement. 

He had stopped many apocalypses before he had decided that Vanya would never be able to  _ not _ cause it. 

Unless he had a very direct hand in deciding how time flowed. 

He was playing God, he knew. It’s just that he would rather be what he hated than to hurt Vanya. 

It had been simple, taking over the Commission. Running it as he did now, he saw none of his family, save for Vanya. 

He had asked Vanya to marry him, and she had agreed. But when he had told her they would never see any of their family again, she had shied away from his touch every time. That was, unless they were sleeping together, in the figurative meaning of the phrase.

“Did you sleep well last night?” He studied her features. They hadn’t literally slept in the same bed since three nights after they’d gotten married. That had been six months and eight days ago. It almost made it worse, to call her his wife when she saw him as nothing but somebody to fuck when she felt particularly lonely. 

“Yes,” she said stiffly. “Is there anything you need me to do?”

He had given her a job mainly so that he could actually speak to her again. Also, to be fair, he would probably kill anybody else working as his assistant. 

“No, I’m okay,” he replied. “Do you want to get-“

“I have a meeting,” she told him curtly. “So, unless you need something, I will be gone.” 

He nodded, boring a hole into the stack of papers in his hand. 

* * *

Vanya suspected Five would grow tired of her soon enough. 

He had, after all, always had a quick temper. 

Vanya knew that she would always cause the apocalypse. 

She knew that, and she knew that Five would be the only one who could kill her now. She knew that it wouldn’t be long before he realized that he didn’t need her, and he could snap her neck and they’d be done with it all. 

Vanya had tried, multiple times, to take herself out of the equation. 

Five would always wind time back until she would wake up, staring up at him in confusion. She knew what she had attempted in those moments, would inevitably see blood staining his collar in the shape of her handprint or the pills that had spilled to the floor beside her if he didn’t jump back quite far enough to where she never even held them. 

How many times, Vanya wondered, would he have to see her die before he didn’t see the point in bringing her back at all?

She stared blankly ahead of her, not listening to the discussions going on at all. An assassin walked by her, and she stiffened. She wondered if she should go to Five’s office. It would have undoubtedly been safer there. She didn’t trust any of them to not slit her throat the second they had a chance. 

But, technically, she didn’t trust Five not to either. 

She stiffly stood as the meeting ran out, and she channelled the stiffness into transforming into a wooden doll. Maybe all it would take to admit she was lying to herself would be the lengthening of her nose. 

Her legs carried her to her husband’s office, and she placed all of her expectations on a shelf, never letting them think themselves real, lest they run away from her.

* * *

Vanya was settled against his desk like it was her throne, legs spreading out for him, back arching back, mouth opening into a small circle. He tugged her panties down her legs before flicking them away. He’d put her in a skirt today, and they both know the significance. 

Time stood still there, and, therefore, she could be his forever. 

Five had damned them before he’d known what they could be, and he would regret it forever too. Reginald may not be able to shove them apart when Five kept her outside of a realm he’d ever been in, but his voice was in his head as he counted the ways he’d failed his wife. 

He takes the scraps that she’ll give him. He’d survived on very little at all in the wasteland, so he could survive this as well. 

His lips reached between her thighs, and he survived.

* * *

She was used to this- the way he touched her. He was always gentle, and she suspected it was because, despite the fact that she had failed him so utterly that they would never be able to ever  _ see  _ their family again, he still felt that he had to do right by her. 

It was nauseating, knowing that he was having to hide his revulsion to her, that he was pretending to care for her so that she wouldn’t suffer here. If Five had shown how pissed off he was, if he had locked her away and made her suffer, it would have been easier. 

“I’m going to be busy the next few days,” he said. She was on his lap, his hand on her knee and grinding against him, feeling him twitch inside of her. The only reason he’d agreed not to face her was because she’d asked, and he still stroked her hair and petted her the entire time, making sure she felt as much pleasure as possible. “We won’t have time for-“

She nodded, not wanting him to feel like he had to explain himself. Vanya was aware that he didn’t want this, just knew that she had once felt something for him and was trying to comfort her. Maybe the reason he was so kind was just because he thought she would end the world if he wasn’t.

“If you need anything.” He would have said more, but he must have seen her expression. His movements didn’t become more rough, but he did seem to be more frantic as he thrust inside of her. 

She wanted to tell him that she was sorry, that he felt that he had to be there at all for her when she’d ruined his life entirely. He could have lived a life with someone else, gotten married to someone that he actually wanted, worked a job that he enjoyed and didn’t take out of desperation. Five wouldn’t want to hear it though, and she didn’t know if she could take it when he would inevitably say he forgave her. He had not snapped at her any more than he had when they were younger, and she was certain that it was because he didn’t trust her enough to express how upset he was. 

He was right to not trust her, but she wished that he would just treat her as awfully as he clearly wanted to treat her.

* * *

He’s talking to one of the assassins, both irritated and pleased with the man. While his presence did upset Vanya, it also upset her enough that she was leaning against Five, seeking protection. It was pathetic and awful that he got happy when she did, but the only time she ever initiated contact with him was when she was scared and wanted him to protect her. Maybe it was the fact that he was so starved of her affection that he never pointed out that she could kill any and everybody that worked here, or maybe it was that he just really liked feeling needed for short periods of time. Either way, he said nothing to her about it, and she stayed tucked to his side. 

Warily, the assassin assessed Vanya, knowing that she’d been many times the cause of the apocalypse. He’d worked here a while, since Five had joined the first time, even. The man had no qualms with not messing with Vanya at all, and he was likely frightened of having to be in front of her in the first place. Five had called him to talk about a mission that had nothing to do with correcting the timeline and everything to do with keeping his family safe, but the assassin knew not to argue. While Vanya would have been very happy to hear what he was doing, and he  _ knew  _ that she did miss them, he didn’t use overt language, hoping that it would keep her from realizing what he was doing. It might give her hope, and if he gave her hope and had to almost immediately squash it, he would not be able to live with himself. 

Too many times he’d seen what happened when Vanya had hope taken from her, and he’d promised himself the last time, when she’d chosen a noose, that he wouldn’t ever let her get to that point again. 

When the man stumbled out of the office, off to go keep his siblings safe, Vanya stayed by his side, likely not noticing that she’d even gone to it. He tested his luck by resting his head against her, but she still didn’t move. 

“You okay?” Five asked, perturbed at the fact that she wasn’t flinching away from him like usual. Though he did not like her distrust of him at all, he also didn’t want her to be cuddling up to him in hopes that he would let her spend some time alone, grab a knife or pills or-

“Yeah, I’m okay, dear,” Vanya said softly, yawning. He could tell it was staged, and he wondered what she was lying about just then but drew blanks. “I am tired though. Was his assignment set for 2019 though? In Indiana?”

_ Oh.  _ He understood now; she had figured out where the agent was going. She was trying to get answers because she assumed just asking him directly would get her nowhere. 

_ Of course she doesn’t trust you to tell her,  _ an old voice jeered in his head.  _ Why would she? _

“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” Five said softly, which was true. She did not have to worry about the others ever being hurt. He’d ensured their safety just as much as hers, and, if he didn’t think it would completely destroy her, he’d tell her everything he knew from keeping tabs on them. 

“Are they okay, Five?” She’d never asked it directly. It was an unspoken agreement that they didn’t talk about the others, put up by her and not him. 

“Yes, sweetheart,” he murmured, knowing that if he didn’t have that information she wouldn’t have bothered staying at his side at all. How else, he thought, would he start to manipulate crumbs of affection from her? 

“Sorry that I brought it up,” Vanya said quickly, moving away from him and making his stomach sink to the floor. She tripped over her feet in order to leave his office, and he listened to the door close, mocking him with its sense of finality. 

For hours, until she’d finally come back to his office, holding coffee and refusing to look him head on (likely because he could easily decipher the meaning of the stuffy nose and red eyes), he fidgeted with the ring against his left hand, wondering how empty the vows she had given him had been. If they were words she said because she wanted  _ him _ or she wanted him not to  _ kill _ her.

* * *

The briefcase was not as heavy as she had expected, but it was not light, either. After nicking it from the charging room, she spent a few minutes trying to figure out how exactly to use it. There were cameras all around the Commission, and Five would easily be able to see these movements if he noticed her missing at all. 

It was frequent, though, that she spent time without him, and she was banking on him not noticing that she’d be gone longer than she ever had before. 

She should be thankful to him, for giving her a new renewed sense of purpose. When she had seen the details, saw how close the assassin had been to their family home, she understood that he was going to have them protected. It meant that they were safe as of right now, and that, assuming she could figure out how to work this briefcase, she could go to their family home and truly apologize for all of the suffering she had caused. 

Eventually, Five would just leave her alone. Eventually, he would realize that she would never be anything besides a destroyer of worlds, and he would leave her body behind after she’d mangled it beyond all hopes of surviving. She liked to think that apologizing to the others beforehand might free some of the guilt from her body before that day came. 

Finally, she figured it out, landing in 2019 seconds after. 

She was a few miles off from the house, and she started walking in that direction, reaching into her coat pocket and pulling a cigarette and lighter. As she fumbled with it, she stumbled into somebody, and she started to apologize just as he did. 

And then she saw his face, and she didn’t really know what happened for the next stretch of time. 

All she knew was that when she came back to her senses she was looking down at Leonard, with a knife from Five’s office driven into his neck, mouth still open in shock. She remembered from learning first aid that taking a weapon from a stab wound would cause the person to bleed out quicker, and she pulled it out. It was Five’s knife anyways; it’d be wrong to leave it there. 

Jerkily, she stood up, and she walked to the mansion, knowing her clothes were saturated in blood. If anybody had stopped her, she would have killed them too. 

She reached her childhood home with a sense of awe, and she reached out with her powers and listened for her siblings first, wanting to hear their voices. 

They were... completely fine. 

They were  _ happy.  _

They didn’t seem to have noticed at all that she’d been taken away. Five hadn’t told them, she knew. They were-

She wondered, as she collapsed against the concrete, feeling her knees scrape but unable to move, screaming and crying, if they had cared at all when she had up and disappeared. 

In that instant, she knew that Five hating her, even feeling indifferent towards her… it would completely unravel the slow thread of normalcy she’d started to weave in her hands. 

The blood on her skin had dried by the time she stood up, and, mechanically, she took herself back to the Commission. Agents surrounded her, but she just dropped the briefcase as their bodies dropped to the floor. 

Her legs moved on instinct, taking her to his office, and then she was staring at him. He gaped at the blood on her skin, at the fat tears trickling down her cheeks, at the near hysterical way she was either laughing or sobbing or screaming. 

“What happened?” Five asked, teleporting to her. She knew he was holding a weapon in his hand, already preparing to take care of whoever hurt her. He would have had to kill her, then. 

“Please don’t hurt me.” She didn’t even know why she even said it. It was just that seeing her family, living together peacefully, without thinking about the two missing at all... It had broken something in her. Vanya wasn’t certain how many people she had just killed, and she desperately hoped that Five wouldn’t kill her, live a life as easy as they had.

“I’m not… what happened?” 

He tipped her chin up with his index finger, seemingly realizing that none of the blood on her body is hers and relaxing almost imperceptibly. 

“Vanya, tell me what happened,” he insisted. 

“I s-stole a briefcase,” she stammered, shaking and knowing that the tears started to wash over Leonard’s blood on her cheeks. “Please don’t-“

“I won’t,” he told her softly, pressing his thumb to her lips and keeping her from asking him not to hurt her again. “I won’t. Who did you-“

She knew her lip was wobbling, knew that she must look pathetic when she asked him to kiss her, but she also knew that she hadn’t asked him to do that since they’d gotten married. She hoped it would be enough, but she wasn’t certain. Until his lips were against her own, she did not know. 

Her hands shook as she unclothed herself, and he walked her backwards to his desk, dropping his belt to the floor as she hopped on top of it. 

“We’ll talk about this eventually,” Five insisted, brushing his finger reverently over her cunt. It occurred to her that he might actually enjoy the sex. She wondered if it was that she’d expressed desire for it, and he saw it as an opportunity to control her through it. He was right to use that, to make her pliant. She was untrustworthy, needed to-

_ “Oh.”  _ The strangled moan spilled from her lips as he started to lap at her cunt, gripping at her thighs. He had kneeled in front of her, head tipped up, angled exactly right, exactly as she liked- “Five,” she whimpered, reaching down to tangle her hands into his hair. 

He flicked his tongue against the hood of her clit, and she started shaking from something other than the pain she’d felt upon seeing her family living comfortably without either of them. 

“Five, I need-“

He glanced up, pulling his mouth away, swiping his tongue over the slickness on his chin. “What do you need, Vanya?”

She made a frustrated noise, reaching for him, not capable of saying the words. He figured it out, unbuttoning his pants and fitting himself between her legs. 

She helped guide him to her entrance, both of them gasping at the feeling of him nudging into her cunt. He gripped her shoulders, letting her stretch and adjust as she took him inch by inch until they were fully joined. They stared at one another, eyes wide until he kissed her as her mouth opened up in a gasp at the feeling of him fucking into her. When he pulled away for just a second, she bit against her lip, and he made a frustrated noise, brushing his thumb over her lips until it was freed from her incisors. Upon seeing the beads of blood against her lips, he licked it off, causing her to yelp. 

He sunk his tongue as her mouth was still open in shock, reaching between her legs and nudging roughly against her clit, timing it closely to the movements of his cock inside of her. 

Her legs, wrapped around his waist, trembled. She knew that she was crying, and he kept tipping his head back to press kisses against her tear-stained cheeks before going back to her lips. Five groaned just as her nails raked down his spine, drawing blood. 

“I love you,” he said against her lips. “You know that, right?”

She gasped. “Don’t… don’t l-lie-“

“I love you.” It was final, the way he said it. Underneath those words, he was telling her that she was not to argue, and she didn’t know what she was crying about anymore. “I love you, and you’re going to  _ tell  _ me what happened. I need to know how to fix it and cover your tracks. Whoever you killed, I don’t care, Vanya. You killed seven-point-five billion people, and, if you’ll notice, it has not changed a damn thing. You’re going to  _ tell  _ me, but I’ll wait until you’re ready if that is what you need from me.” 

Vanya gaped at him, nodding jerkily, and he sighed, relaxing his shoulders against her palms. “Good,” he breathed, slamming into her but holding her in his arms with a gentleness incongruent to the movements of his hips. “Thank you, V.”

He pushed her down a little, angling her so that she was staring up at him, papers crumpling underneath her hair and around his hand, which he’d nestled against into her hair and holding her head steady, ensuring she wouldn’t hit it against the desk. 

She clenched around him, and he muttered praise to her, ordering her to relax and let go. Her orgasm struck her at his continued ministrations to her cunt, and his eyes shone with pride at the sound of her, seeping onto his cock and enclosing him as her walls tightened around him. 

It was as he spilled into her, continuing to rut against her and prolong the feeling for both of them, that she whispered, head tucked against his chest and stroking along his spine, confessing to him in the safety of his arms and atop the desk that he’d taken only to keep her and their family alive, “I love you too.”

* * *

She was shaking when she came to his office, weeks after she’d come there covered in blood, and he stood up, reaching for her and not setting his hands down until she was tucked into his arms. “What happened?” Five murmured, tangling his fingers through her hair. 

“Can you sleep over tonight?”

His heart started pounding, it had been just shy of a year at this point that she’d even suggested she  _ wanted  _ to sleep in the same bed as her. “Are you ready for that now? I understand if you…”

“I love you,” Vanya interrupted. He tightened his hands in her glossy hair, reaching down to inhale the conditioner she’d used since they were young and had asked him for specifically when they’d arrived. “And I’m ready, by the way, to talk.”

“Oh,” he kissed the top of her head. “You want to go now?”

“Don’t you have-“

“Nothing here is more important to me than you, V. We’ll be fine for  _ a  _ night, don’t you think?”

She frowned up at him, and he smiled softly, kissing the corners of her mouth until it twitched treacherously into a smile. 

“Hold onto me,” he said, nipping at her earlobe as he breathed against her ear. He was pretty certain everyone at the Commission was afraid to enter his office after the nine weeks he’d mostly spent fucking her. She made a soft noise as he lifted her up, blinking them directly to their home. 

As they landed on the couch, already pulling off clothes and making out, he heard the distinct bark __ of the mastiff he’d gotten her for protection right after they’d gotten married. He pulled off of her, feeling the joy radiating off of her as she smiled at Mr. Pennycrumb ambling over to them, nearly tackling Five as he jumped up and started licking his face. 

He leaned against the couch, letting Mr. Pennycrumb stand on top of them, completely unaware of his own size, and barking excitedly. 

“Did you miss Five?” Vanya’s voice was so gentle, and he smiled while she fussed over the pup, scratching his large head. 

“You wanted to talk?” Five prompted, putting his hand out to Mr. Pennycrumb to see if he still shook hands and grinning as he did. 

“I killed Leonard.”

Five would like to say it was out of the sheer delight in finally feeling like his wife cared for him, that he finally had a chance at having a family again with her and their dog, that he just felt so damn light in that instance that he burst into laughter. Unfortunately, he was laughing so hard because the concept of Vanya being _worried_ about what he’d think of her killing  _ Leonard  _ was absurd and hilarious and-

“Why are you  _ laughing?” _

He tried to stop, eyes watering as he sealed his lips, but then he was just shaking with silent laughter. Mr. Pennycrumb was barking and wagging his tail, and Five silently thanked him for his utmost loyalty. Vanya cocked her head to the side, and he forced himself to calm down enough to ask, “Of all the people you could have killed, you were concerned  _ he  _ would be the one I drew the line at?”

Vanya frowned again, and he sighed, “Vanya, I could tell you that murder is wrong, but I’d be a giant fucking hypocrite for it. I’ll make sure his body is removed from the sight if you’d like, or whatever else you need. The briefcase you stole, did you put it back?”

She nodded, an expression he couldn’t recognize flashing across her features. He gently stroked her hair before running the backs of his fingers against the line of her jaw. 

“Does it bother you?” Five asked, knowing that now he truly could and get an honest answer. “What I do?”

She shook her head. “You really aren’t mad?”

He shrugged. “I can pretend to be if you’d like, but it wouldn’t be genuine.” 

“I possibly killed a few of your agents too or, at the very least, I injured them.” 

He made a mental note to talk to H.R., willing himself not to start laughing again as he asked, “On a scale from having infinite sign tattoos to incorrectly mansplaining concepts we learned when we were eight, how irritating were they? Please tell me you killed the one who always asks ‘working hard or hardly working?’ when you walk past him. I have killed so many agents for seeing you naked, but that’s obviously a much graver offense.” 

Vanya was clearly trying to school her features into a look of reproach, and he was certain of it because he recognized that look from every time he’d get in trouble for messing with one of the others when they bothered her. “I didn’t catch what they looked like.”

“Damn. Might kill him anyways, then.” 

“Thank you,” Vanya told him abruptly. “For trying to comfort me.”

He shrugged. “You’re the only person I actually enjoy in this shithole. I need you by my side. If it means condoning a little murder, I can handle it.”

“Was that a  _ pun?” _

“Jesus Christ, no.”

She laughed, and the noise made his stomach fill with a nice, light sensation. He kissed her forehead. 

“Can I ask you something?”

He nodded, slinging an arm around her shoulder and letting her cuddle into his side. 

“How many times did I…?”

Just like that, all of the joy he’d experience drained from his body. He knew what she was asking, even though she had not finished the question. “Nine,” he croaked. “Nine times.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?

“I thought,” he closed his eyes, inadvertently tightening his grip on her. “I thought if I told you, that you’d get the idea to… to do it again.”

“Why didn’t you medicate me?”

His eyes opened in shock. “And force you to live the life you had before? Without even your consent to do so? I know that it wouldn’t have been as strong of meds, that they’d be prescribed by an actual doctor, but you wouldn’t really be able to have agreed to it. Plus… you had a preference, when you did it. For pills.” 

“Oh,” she breathed. 

“If you think you need them, I can find a psychiatrist without any trouble at all, but I wasn’t going to… I’m  _ not-“ _

“I know you’re not him,” Vanya cut in, knowing what he was going to say immediately. He was always looming over them, on some level. Even if they had finally run away as they’d promised one another, he still lived in the thoughts of the children he abused, of the children he had  _ forced  _ to call him  _ Father  _ when he’d only acquired them through fat stacks of cash. 

“Do you want that, V? To have someone to talk to and possibly medicate you? Would it help?”

“Possibly, but… there’s something I want first, and it might make you upset-“

“Anything,” Five interrupted. “I’ll do anything if it means never finding you not breathing again.”

“I want to see them.”

He arched a brow at her, “Our family?”

She nodded. 

He started calculating how he could make it work; he trusted her that she wouldn’t lose control. “I can arrange that, but you know we can’t ever leave here for good, right?”

“Yeah, I know… is it too much to-“

“No, of course not,” he insisted, touching her hand. “Nothing you ask would be too much, first of all, but… Vanya, I miss them. I want to see them too, and, if it will help you…”

“You’ll keep an eye on me? When we go?”

“Do you want me to?”

“Yes.” Her voice was insistent, and he knew that it would be a conversation for later. She wasn’t ready to say what she was thinking now.

“Okay, yes, I will,” he told her. 

Mr. Pennycrumb had fallen asleep at their conversation, and he asked, thinking of this little family they had now and changing the subject because he knew she didn’t want to talk about the other one further, “Vanya, are we… are we okay now?” 

He felt his heart already prepare itself to sink as she watched her hesitate, but he realized she was just thinking, wanting to give an honest answer. Finally, she nodded. 

And then he knew what it felt like to  _ live _ and not just survive. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to everyone for reading this (nearly late) fic for day 19!!! The one for day 20 is done, and it will be posted shortly.


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